While the West Saxons were halted at the Mercian border by Ragnar's Station Fortresses, the same could not be said for the rest of the Kingdom of Northumbria.
At the moment, the Scots were laying siege to Carlisle, the gateway to the North.
The Ealdorman of the region was missing in action and his eldest son was currently staying within York with his wife and three children, hoping the problem would solve itself.
The defense of the County of Cumbria was left to the second son of the Ealdorman, a man named Osric, who was slightly more intelligent than his brother Eadric but was by no means a genius, let alone a master of military strategy.
As such, the region was in dire straits while it faced the Scottish raiders.
Eadric's younger brother Osric opted to give his troops the orders to stay within their castles and challenge the Scots to fight them where they had the advantage.
